Africa-Press – Zambia. The Katete District Conflict Management Committee has urged political parties in the district to nurture and utilise dialogue as a means of resolving conflicts.
Speaking during the committee’s engagement with political parties, Committee Chairperson Thomas Phiri noted that a lot of electoral and political conflicts can be resolved through dialogue and respect for one other.
“Having dialogue and engaging each other we can achieve more. We should bear in mind that after elections, we will still be residents of Katete,” he said.
Rev Phiri was responding to questions raised by Suzyo Mthonga a representative for Micheal Banda an independent candidate under Mkaika Constituency and Peter Ndhlovu who was representing the Socialist Party.
Rev Phiri reminded political parties to realise that there would still be life after the elections, hence the need not to resort to violence. He further urged the different political parties not to take the law into their own hands once provoked, but should either dialogue, report to the police or report to the conflict management committee.
“We know we are closer to the D-Day and tempers flare. We are against taking the law into your own hands, we want to maintain the same Katete even after elections,” he said. He also urged the political parties to continue engaging the committee even after elections in case of any post electoral conflicts.
Earlier Suzyo Mthonga a representative for Micheal Banda, an independent candidate under Mkaika Constituency, wanted to find out if there are any measures that the Electoral Commission of Zambia has put in place that can help minimize the tearing down and removal of political party posters by rival political parties.
“Most of the times we put up the posters, you will find that people have removed them and sometimes these people are unknown,” he said. Meanwhile, Peter Ndhlovu a representative for the Socialist Party raised a concern as to how long the conflict management committee stays in effect.
“There are cases where election results have been announced and people start to fight and insult each other over the results. So I want to know how long the committee stays in effect so that once these arise, it is easy to report,” he said. Katete has not recorded any conflicts, as misunderstandings are being amicably resolved among political players.
